ALBERT

Description: Empirical constraints on reionization require galactic ionizing photon escape fractions f esc 20 per cent, but recent high-resolution radiation-hydrodynamic calculations have consistently found much lower values ~1–5 per cent. While these models include strong stellar feedback and additional processes such as runaway stars, they almost exclusively consider stellar evolution models based on single (isolated) stars, despite the fact that most massive stars are in binaries. We re-visit these calculations, combining radiative transfer and high-resolution cosmological simulations with detailed models for stellar feedback from the Feedback in Realistic Environments project. For the first time, we use a stellar evolution model that includes a physically and observationally motivated treatment of binaries (the Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis model). Binary mass transfer and mergers enhance the population of massive stars at late times (3 Myr) after star formation, which in turn strongly enhances the late-time ionizing photon production (especially at low metallicities). These photons are produced after feedback from massive stars has carved escape channels in the interstellar medium, and so efficiently leak out of galaxies. As a result, the time-averaged ‘effective’ escape fraction (ratio of escaped ionizing photons to observed 1500 Å photons) increases by factors ~4–10, sufficient to explain reionization. While important uncertainties remain, we conclude that binary evolution may be critical for understanding the ionization of the Universe.

Description: We study the radioactively powered transients produced by accretion disc winds following a compact object merger. Based on the outflows found in two-dimensional hydrodynamical disc models, we use wavelength-dependent radiative transfer calculations to generate synthetic light curves and spectra. We show that resulting kilonova transients generally produce both optical and infrared emission, with the brightness and colour carrying information about the merger physics. In those regions of the wind subject to high neutrino irradiation, r-process nucleosynthesis may halt before producing high-opacity, complex ions (the lanthanides). The kilonova light curves thus typically has two distinct components: a brief (~2 d) blue optical transient produced in the outer lanthanide-free ejecta, and a longer (~10 d) infrared transient produced in the inner, lanthanide line-blanketed region. Mergers producing a longer lived neutron star, or a more rapidly spinning black hole, have stronger neutrino irradiation, generate more lanthanide-free ejecta and are optically brighter and bluer. At least some optical emission is produced in all disc wind models, which should enhance the detectability of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources. However, the presence of even a small amount (10 –4 M ) of overlying, neutron-rich dynamical ejecta will act as a ‘lanthanide-curtain’, obscuring the optical wind emission from certain viewing angles. Because the disc outflows have moderate velocities (~10 000 km s –1 ), numerous resolved line features are discernible in the spectra, distinguishing disc winds from fast-moving dynamical ejecta, and offering a potential diagnostic of the detailed composition of freshly produced r-process material.

Description: We examine the late-time ( t 200 d after peak brightness) spectra of Type Iax supernovae (SNe Iax), a low-luminosity, low-energy class of thermonuclear stellar explosions observationally similar to, but distinct from, Type Ia supernovae. We present new spectra of SN 2014dt, resulting in the most complete late-time spectral sequence of an SN Iax. At late times, SNe Iax have generally similar spectra, all with a similar continuum shape and strong forbidden-line emission. However, there is also significant diversity where some SN Iax spectra display narrow P-Cygni features from permitted lines and a continuum indicative of a photosphere at late times in addition to strong narrow (FWHM 〈 3500 km s –1 ) forbidden lines, others have no obvious P-Cygni features, strong broad (FWHM 〉 6000 km s –1 ) forbidden lines, and weak narrow forbidden lines, and some SNe Iax have spectra intermediate to these two varieties. We find that SNe Iax with strong broad forbidden lines are more luminous and have higher velocity ejecta at peak brightness. We estimate blackbody and kinematic radii of the late-time photosphere, finding the latter significantly larger than the former. We propose a two-component model that solves this discrepancy and explains the diversity of the late-time spectra of SNe Iax. In this model, the broad forbidden lines originate from the SN ejecta, while the photosphere, P-Cygni lines, and narrow forbidden lines originate from a wind launched from the remnant of the progenitor white dwarf and is driven by the radioactive decay of newly synthesized material left in the remnant. The relative strength of the two components accounts for the diversity of late-time SN Iax spectra. This model also solves the puzzle of a long-lived photosphere and the slow late-time decline of SNe Iax.

Description: Strongly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron stars are contenders for the central engines of both long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) and hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I). Models for typical (minute long) LGRBs invoke magnetars with high dipole magnetic fields ( B d 10 15  G) and short spin-down times, SLSNe-I require neutron stars with weaker fields and longer spin-down times of weeks. Here, we identify a transition region in the space of B d and birth period for which a magnetar can power both a LGRB and a luminous supernova. In particular, a 2 ms period magnetar with a spin-down time of ~10 4  s can explain both the ultralong GRB 111209 and its associated luminous SN2011kl. For magnetars with longer spin-down times, we predict even longer duration (~10 5 – 6  s) GRBs and brighter supernovae, a correlation that extends to Swift J2058+05 (commonly interpreted as a tidal disruption event). We further show that previous estimates of the maximum rotational energy of a protomagnetar were too conservative and energies up to E max  ~ 1–2  x  10 53 ergs are possible. A magnetar can therefore comfortably accommodate the extreme energy requirements recently posed by the most luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh. The luminous pulsar wind nebula powering ASASSN-15lh may lead to an ‘ionization breakout’ X-ray burst over the coming months, accompanied by a change in the optical spectrum.

Description: Transient surveys have recently discovered a class of supernovae (SNe) with extremely rapidly declining light curves. These events are also often relatively faint, especially compared to Type Ia SNe. The common explanation for these events involves a weak explosion, producing a radioactive outflow with small ejected mass and kinetic energy ( M  ~ 0.1 M and E  ~ 0.1 B, respectively), perhaps from the detonation of a helium shell on a white dwarf. We argue, in contrast, that these events may be Type Ib/c SNe with typical masses and energies ( M  ~ 3 M , E  ~ 1 B), but which ejected very little radioactive material. In our picture, the light curve is powered by the diffusion of thermal energy deposited by the explosion shock wave, and the rapid evolution is due to recombination, which reduces the opacity and results in an ‘oxygen-plateau’ light curve. Using a radiative transfer code and simple 1D ejecta profiles, we generate synthetic spectra and light curves and demonstrate that this model can reasonably fit the observations of one event, SN 2010X. Similar models may explain the features of other rapidly evolving SNe such as SN 2002bj and SN 2005ek. SNe such as these may require stripped-envelope progenitors with rather large radii ( R  ~ 20 R ), which may originate from a mass-loss episode occurring just prior to explosion.

Description: We explore the evolution of the different ejecta components generated during the merger of a neutron star and a black hole. Our focus is the interplay between material ejected dynamically during the merger, and the wind launched on a viscous time-scale by the remnant accretion disc. These components are expected to contribute to an electromagnetic transient and to produce r-process elements, each with a different signature when considered separately. Here we introduce a two-step approach to investigate their combined evolution, using two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Starting from the output of a merger simulation, we identify each component in the initial condition based on its phase-space distribution, and evolve the accretion disc in axisymmetry. The wind blown from this disc is injected into a three-dimensional computational domain where the dynamical ejecta is evolved. We find that the wind can suppress fallback accretion on time-scales longer than ~100 ms. Because of self-similar viscous evolution, the disc accretion at late times nevertheless approaches a power-law time dependence t –2.2 . This can power some late-time gamma-ray burst engine activity, although the available energy is significantly less than in traditional fallback models. Inclusion of radioactive heating due to the r-process does not significantly affect the fallback accretion rate or the disc wind. We do not find any significant modification to the wind properties at large radius due to interaction with the dynamical ejecta. This is a consequence of the different expansion velocities of the two components.

Description: The accretion disc that forms after a neutron star merger is a source of neutron-rich ejecta. The ejected material contributes to a radioactively powered electromagnetic transient, with properties that depend sensitively on the composition of the outflow. Here, we investigate how the spin of the black hole (BH) remnant influences mass ejection on the thermal and viscous time-scales. We carry out two-dimensional, time-dependent hydrodynamic simulations of merger remnant accretion discs including viscous angular momentum transport and approximate neutrino self-irradiation. The gravity of the spinning BH is included via a pseudo-Newtonian potential. We find that a disc around a spinning BH ejects more mass, up to a factor of several, relative to the non-spinning case. The enhanced mass-loss is due to energy release by accretion occurring deeper in the gravitational potential, raising the disc temperature and hence the rate of viscous heating in regions where neutrino cooling is ineffective. The mean electron fraction of the outflow increases moderately with BH spin due to a highly irradiated (though not neutrino-driven) wind component. While the bulk of the ejecta is still very neutron-rich, thus generating heavy r -process elements, the leading edge of the wind contains a small amount of Lanthanide-free material. This component can give rise to an 1 d blue optical ‘bump’ in a kilonova light curve, even in the case of prompt BH formation, which may facilitate its detection.

Description: The merger of binary neutron stars (NSs) ejects a small quantity of neutron-rich matter, the radioactive decay of which powers a day to week long thermal transient known as a kilonova. Most of the ejecta remains sufficiently dense during its expansion that all neutrons are captured into nuclei during the r -process. However, recent general relativistic merger simulations by Bauswein and collaborators show that a small fraction of the ejected mass (a few per cent, or ~10 –4 M ) expands sufficiently rapidly for most neutrons to avoid capture. This matter originates from the shocked-heated interface between the merging NSs. Here, we show that the β-decay of these free neutrons in the outermost ejecta powers a ‘precursor’ to the main kilonova emission, which peaks on a time-scale of ~ few hours following merger at U -band magnitude ~22 (for an assumed distance of 200 Mpc). The high luminosity and blue colours of the neutron precursor render it a potentially important counterpart to the gravitational wave source, that may encode valuable information on the properties of the merging binary (e.g. NS–NS versus NS–black hole) and the NS equation of state. Future work is necessary to assess the robustness of the fast-moving ejecta and the survival of free neutrons in the face of neutrino absorptions, although the precursor properties are robust to a moderate amount of leptonization. Our results provide additional motivation for short latency gravitational wave triggers and rapid follow-up searches with sensitive ground-based telescopes.

Description: We develop analytic and numerical models of the properties of super-Eddington stellar winds, motivated by phases in stellar evolution when super-Eddington energy deposition (via, e.g. unstable fusion, wave heating, or a binary companion) heats a region near the stellar surface. This appears to occur in the giant eruptions of luminous blue variables (LBVs), Type IIn supernovae progenitors, classical novae, and X-ray bursts. We show that when the wind kinetic power exceeds Eddington, the photons are trapped and behave like a fluid. Convection does not play a significant role in the wind energy transport. The wind properties depend on the ratio of a characteristic speed in the problem $v_{\rm crit}\sim (\dot{E} G)^{1/5}$ (where $\dot{E}$ is the heating rate) to the stellar escape speed near the heating region v esc ( r h ). For v crit v esc ( r h ), the wind kinetic power at large radii $\dot{E}_{\rm w} \sim \dot{E}$ . For v crit v esc ( r h ), most of the energy is used to unbind the wind material and thus $\dot{E}_{\rm w} \lesssim \dot{E}$ . Multidimensional hydrodynamic simulations without radiation diffusion using flash and one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations with radiation diffusion using mesa are in good agreement with the analytic predictions. The photon luminosity from the wind is itself super-Eddington but in many cases the photon luminosity is likely dominated by ‘internal shocks’ in the wind. We discuss the application of our models to eruptive mass-loss from massive stars and argue that the wind models described here can account for the broad properties of LBV outflows and the enhanced mass-loss in the years prior to Type IIn core-collapse supernovae.